Electrinature: electricity in nature in 3 images
The purplish-blue powder on the petals of these flowers remind me of just how little we as humans can see of the world around us. We need to run experiments such as the one pictured here in order to prove something that bees knew of because they could feel it, and trusted in without needing to see it. The non-human world does not need human help to make sense of it! The flowers needed the bees, so the electricity on the earth made it so, the flowers did not need ‘brains’ (as we know them) to do this for them. Seeing the purplish-blue powder is almost like seeing proof that magic exists.
This is a jarring image. My first thought was that it must be manipulated by photo editing software. Alas, it is a true photo. Just as we need purple-blue powder to reveal to us the magic around flowers, we need human-made technology to try and comprehend the existence of the bees. The CSIRO says that the experience of carrying one of these 2.5sq.mm chips is the equivalent of the weight a human would experience from carrying a small backpack. I wonder if it was a deliberate decision to have the chips coloured gold and black, its coil-like design almost mimicking the stripes on the tiny bees back. This image feels unnatural, like a brain-teaser my brain cannot yet comprehend.
Try as humans might in our labs and on our computers, with our powders and our chips, the more-than-human world will always have us beat. Look at all the forces in this image: the green ocean, the heavy and menacing clouds, the bright lightning, and the light of the sun persisting through the storm. How many scientists did it take before humans harnessed electricity? Harness as a noun refers to the straps by which a draught animal is fastened and controlled by a human. We might think we’ve harnessed electricity well enough for our usage, but what we have bottled is but a fraction of the electricity of nature.
- Steph Philipov, z3417828